LP version. Composer Ahmed Essyad was born in Salé, Morocco, in 1938. After studying music at the Rabat Conservatoire (Morocco) he moved to Paris in 1962, where he became a student of Max Deutsch and, later, his assistant. Trained in the avant-garde practices of Western musical composition, he also claimed the Amazigh folk music of Morocco as a fundamental source of inspiration for his work. In 1965, he was already incorporating elements of oral tradition in his work so as to question the language of his time, and therefore had to cope with the limits of musical notation and communication with musicians who did not share his cultural references. It was difficult to agree on what was implicit, "behind the notes," especially regarding the management of musical time and micro-intervals. In search of new compositional tools, he turned to electro-acoustic music. Working in a studio made it possible for him to be the interpreter of his own work, which ensured a certain continuity with music of oral tradition. The pieces presented here were produced between 1972 and 1974 in a studio dedicated to electro-acoustic music, the S.M.E.C.A, which was part of the Music Workshop founded by Jorge Arriagada in Paris. The studio was equipped with EMS and Minimoog synthesizers, a piano, a marimba, a xylophone, as well as various percussion instruments and a tape delay system. The practice of electro-acoustics may have been a mere parenthesis in Ahmed Essyad's long and prolific career as a composer of contemporary music, but the works presented here are nonetheless important. They show how strongly he both supported North African popular forms of expression and opposed its folklorizing through simplistic and "exotic" representations. It's not about fusing together East and West -- impossible, he says: "the real point is to open up an imaginary space where another modernity can exist outside the largely Eurocentric framework of avant-garde music. Synthesis means anticipation, knowledge. As for me, I'm increasingly ignorant. I write to discover what I don't know. Music feeds me, it pollinates me. It's my daily wine."

"Ted Lucas' self-titled album appears on Third Man Records, for the first time on vinyl since 2018, pressed in Detroit at Third Man Pressing. This self-titled work published album by singer-songwriter and master guitarist Ted Lucas has achieved an almost mystical reputation among aficionados and collectors. Ted Lucas is a seamless marriage of moody odes and raga style instrumentals regarded by many to be, simply put, the greatest private press folk/psych album ever recorded. Lucas was a fixture in the Detroit rock scene of the sixties and seventies. In 1972, the demo for Warner Brothers which would become Ted Lucas was recorded at Motown, and released in two private editions in 1975 and known informally to friends and family as The OM Album, after Lucas' own label. The album was released with artwork by the legendary Stanley Mouse originally created for Jimi Hendrix. RIYL: John Fahey, Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake."

Passivité is the entrancingly beautiful debut solo album from You Ishihara, the founder of Japan's legendary White Heaven. Originally released on CD in 1997, it received scant attention. Since then, it has steadily gathered adherents, who, like P.S.F. Records founder Hideo Ikeezumi, have praised its tremendous depth and discovered that they experience something new each time they listen. The album draws from rock and psychedelic music, the sounds of '60s America as well as elements of jazz, bossa nova, soul, and even electronic music. Joined by a choice group players including Michio Kurihara (White Heaven) on guitar, Chiyo Kemekawa (Yura Yura Teikoku) on bass, and Koji Shimura (Acid Mothers Temple), Ishihara creates an enigmatic late-night meditation that unfolds in a cool darkness pierced by scattered flashes of light and heat. Listening back today, Passivité sounds timeless and encapsulates the concepts and brilliance that have marked Ishihara's near 50-year career and standing as a key figure in the history of Japanese underground music. Black Editions presents Passivité for the first time on vinyl in a meticulously remastered deluxe edition with notes by Masato Matsumura (Studio Voice, Tokion) and by Shinji Shibayama (Nagisa Ni Te, Org Records). Pressed to high quality vinyl at Record Technology Inc. Housed in a metallic silver tip-on jacket with gloss film laminate finish, matte pigment stamping, two inserts with liner notes in Japanese and English.

Performed by Carlos Cipa. The new recording of The Book of Sounds is an intimate exploration of the piano by pianist Carlos Cipa -- a way of looking into the sound, of listening into the moment when Cipa's fingers press down on the piano keys. The Book of Sounds, composed between 1979 and 1982 by composer and pianist Hans Otte, is a musical pendulum movement of one hour in twelve "pieces," as the composer himself describes them. Chords and melodies repeat themselves, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly; they follow each other in harmonic cadences and yet never dissolve -- a timeless back and forth. The Book of Sounds is the European-German answer to the concert music of American minimalism. But it is also the essence of many questions about society and the human condition at that time. Inspired by Zen Buddhism, Otte was convinced that a return to simplicity, to the unagitated -- a piano, harmonic cadences, a middle register -- frees the listener to focus on what is really important in art: the human being. Introspection begins with listening. Seldom have simple chords and melodies been so selectively staged. It is a process of endless reduction -- no wild sound dramaturgies, no climaxes, hardly any beginning or end. The interpreting pianist simply prepares a tableaux of perception for the listener. Cipa naturally sets accents; he recorded the 12 pieces on three different pianos -- a Steinway grand piano, a Yamaha piano, and a Yamaha CP-70, an early electric piano -- to help shape the tonal characteristics. Carlos Cipa hits the nerve of the times with this new recording. What music can be as art is still up for debate today. The Book of Sounds is not "art-proof" and in this it is still a provocation today; absolutely unspectacular and practicing relaxation. It is a wonderful invitation to feel, experience, and perhaps even find oneself in the confrontation with the work -- and for a moment not to fuel the discourse. Cipa, who otherwise appears as a composer himself, here carries out Otte's intended gesture of withdrawal in a double sense and steps into the background as creator but also interpreter, in order to bequeath The Book of Sounds to the loudspeakers and headphones at home in one step forward.

Hardcover. 12.6" L x 9.8" W (2.75 lbs). 192 pages. "Edited with text by Erin Christovale. Foreword by Ann Philbin. Text by Franya J. Berkman. Interviews by Ashley Kahn, Erin Christovale. Rashid Johnson, Cauleen Smith and others pay tribute to a truly extraordinary figure in 20th-century American jazz. This volume unpacks the cultural legacy of musician, spiritual leader, wife and mother Alice Coltrane. Accompanying the eponymous exhibition at Los Angeles' Hammer Museum, the book takes its title from Coltrane's 1977 autobiography and devotional text, Monument Eternal, in which she reflected on her newfound spiritual beliefs and the path to healing and self-discovery. Coltrane was 'ahead of her time,' as her son, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, says: she was 'one of the first people to move outside the mainstream, and certainly one of the first female, Black, American jazz musicians to record her own music in her own studio, and to release music on her own terms.' Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal explores themes including spiritual transcendence, sonic innovation and architectural intimacy. The project juxtaposes works from 19 contemporary American artists with pieces of ephemera from Coltrane's archive -- including handwritten sheet music, unreleased audio recordings and rarely seen footage -- to honor her cultural output and practice. Alice Coltrane was born in Detroit in 1937 and took up music at an early age, beginning piano lessons at seven years old. In 1967 her husband, saxophonist John Coltrane, gifted her a harp, on which she went on to record seminal albums including Journey in Satchidananda and A Monastic Trio, making her one of the very few harpists in the history of jazz. Coltrane moved to Southern California in 1972 and founded the Sai Anantam ashram. She lived and worked in Los Angeles, where she died in 2007 at age 69. This book was published in conjunction with Hammer Museum."

The reissue of 1972's Italian jazz funk classic, directed by Il Maestro Piero Umiliani. Trumpetist Francesco "Cicci" Santucci and saxophonist Enzo Scoppa cut their teeth in the late '50s, playing with the Italian group Modern Jazz Gang, along with other Italian jazz greats such as Sandro Brugnolini and Amadeo Tommasi. In June 1971, "il maestro" Piero Umiliani made his Sound Workshop recording studio in the heart of Rome available to them, so that they could create an album under his supervision. The result was Olimpiade, a jazz-funk album featuring Franco d'Andrea on electric piano (who would go on to play with the group Perigeo a year later), and Belgian musician Joel Vendrokenbrak on organ. It should be noted that this session was also released on Dire, under the name On the Underground Road, but is here reissued for the first time with its magnificent original cover. A poster of the artwork and a printed insert featuring the Sound Workshop studio are also included with this reissue.

Repressed. The initial seed for this project was planted in 2020 when Nicolás Jaar wrote the song "Piedras" for a concert at the Museum of Memory & Human Rights in Santiago, Chile, which commemorates the victims of human rights violations during the military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1990. Between 2022-2023, it took on a new form as a radio play entitled Archivos de Radio Piedras, which was shared on a dedicated Telegram channel. In 2024, the play was converted into a 24-channel installation at the University Museum of Mexico City (MUAC), where it was exhibited for five months. Piedras 1 & 2 is a collection of the tracks featured within the play, all new music by Jaar, but partly presented within the play as the music of Salinas Hasbún (the name a composite homage to Jaar's grandmothers, Graciela Salinas and Miriam Hasbún). The play follows two friends mourning the disappearance of Salinas Hasbún, a musician and writer who vanished in the early 2020s. Although they live in a future where technology is advanced, they resort to DIY radio methods because the anonymous group "Las 0cho" has launched a worldwide attack on undersea internet cables, causing a global internet blackout. The play's central theme revolves around the idea that truths, memories and identities speak from the cracks, or the "in-between" spaces. This concept is supported by the way much of the narration unfolds -- in the liminal spaces between radio frequencies. The instability and transitory nature of a constantly shifting radio dial becomes not just a metaphor but the structure of the play itself. It's in these moments of noise, static and interference that the deeper revelations of the story emerge. This disjointed, ever-changing medium mirrors the way memory and trauma operate within the play -- non-linear, slipping through the gaps, found in fragments or ordinary moments, rather than direct transmissions of "official" historical accounts. This notion reaches its climax at the end of the narrative, when a text is discovered in which Salinas speaks of finding a new number in a small pond in a cave mentioned in the first episodes of the radio play. Embodied in the salt lakes of northern Chile, home to the world's oldest bacteria, this randomness disrupts the rigid order of binary code, paving the way for a transformation of digital life.

The Outer Edge presents a true gem on the label: the first-ever vinyl reissue of the highly collectible Shake It - Make It Loose LP by J.D. (Puma) Lewis. Originally released on the infamous Metrovynil label in 1984, it stands as the best and most authentic boogie/'80s funk album ever produced in Germany. However, little is known about this legendary release, and the credits are sparse and often confusing. In reality, Shake It - Make It Loose was a collaboration between just two musicians: John Davis and Reginald Hudson. Both were first-class, highly talented musicians and composers from the U.S., who spent most of their lives living and working in Southern Germany. The combination of their musicianship and the cutting-edge technology at the studio resulted in a masterpiece of pure, state-of-the-art funk and boogie. The album features all the hallmarks of great '80s music: fresh synths, drum machines, and powerful lead vocals from John Davis. As said, these sessions took place at Hartmann Digital, a state-of-the-art studio in Untertrubach, Bavaria, where iconic artists like Nena, Yello, Visage, DAF, and Soft Cell recorded. The use of such an expensive studio would have been out of reach for the two musicians without Puma's backing, which also explains why there is a title like "Dancing Shoes." In the end, the album was signed to the Deggendorf-based Metrovynil label. The original pressing looked and sounded fantastic, featuring a stylish cover shot of John Davis in a sharp suit. Now, with this first-ever vinyl reissue, The Outer Edge is thrilled to include additional photos and more background information in a deluxe gatefold sleeve. This reissue includes all six tracks from the original Hartmann Digital sessions, plus two bonus tracks. From the original reel tapes, the label unearthed additional material that Hudson and Davis produced together in the early to mid-'80s. Shake It - Make It Loose is a classic boogie-funk album that belongs in every serious funk and disco collection. It showcases the undeniable talent of two true musicians and stands as a testament to the friendship between Reg Hudson and John Davis.

LP version. "Jules Reidy's sublime music maps the human experience in glittering constellations of sound. The guitarist is a driver of Berlin's fertile contemporary music scene. A wide-eyed imagination combined with technical mastery guide each work in Reidy's extensive catalog, from solo guitar albums and collaborations with innovative peers, including recent works with claire rousay, Oren Ambarchi, Andrea Belfi, and Sam Dunscombe to major commissions from JACK Quartet and Zinc & Copper. The songs of Ghost/Spirit collectively convey an astral sense of yearning and wonder, pushing towards transcendence. The album charts a deeply personal journey with love, spirituality and transformation expressed in fractal guitar figures, ethereal vocal vapors and rippling microtones. Reidy's guitar approach unlocks the tonal and textural possibilities of the instrument from their use of alternate tunings and astute processing. The maximalist melodics of album opener 'Every Day There's a Sunset' are bolstered by rumbling bass samples from Andreas Dzialocha, Reidy's collaborator in the duo Sun Kit. On 'Satellite,' cello samples from Judith Hamann stretch out through the cosmos, orbited by spiraling finger-picked guitars, while stacked trombone chords echo out into the ether. Thundering drum samples from Berlin metal mainstay Sara Neidorf push the album to ecstatic peaks on 'Every Day There's a Sunrise,' fragmented rhythms breaking apart in the atmosphere. Field recordings of the Berlin S-Bahn recur throughout the album, another endless cycle of leaving and returning that shuttles beneath the album's whirling tones. Ghost/Spirit captures the inherent power and agency in choosing to offer yourself up to the universe and let go, ego death and prayer rendered in incandescent sonics. Reidy's inimitable skill as a guitarist, producer and composer is on full display, and when combined with the intensity of experience, the resulting album is a remarkable work of art.

"Jules Reidy is another musician transforming the capabilities of an instrument, in this case the guitar -- somewhere between Vini Reilly, Glenn Branca and Kevin Shields." --The Guardian

"You grasp for names that might fit Reidy's elusive emotional register, searching in vain for an affective Rosetta Stone. The music feels both warmly familiar and uncomfortably alien; therein lies its power." --Pitchfork

"Like looking through a tinted window then trying to adjust to the world's normal colours. It's brilliant." --The Quietus

"[Their] music offers an intricate sonic tapestry of fingerstyle guitar, found sounds and spectral electronic drone." -- Crack

LP version. Following the success of the Tokyo Glow and Funk Tide sets, Wewantsounds once again teams up with Tokyo-based DJ Notoya for a breezy selection of funk and boogie recorded in Japan for King Records in the '70s and '80s. Most tracks here are making their debut on vinyl outside of Japan and the album, like its predecessors, has been designed by Optigram's Manuel Sepulveda and is annotated by DJ Notoya. The audio has been newly mastered in Tokyo by King Records and remastered for vinyl by Colorsound in Paris. For Tokyo Bliss, Japanese Funk expert DJ Notoya has picked a diverse selection of great funk, boogie and city pop tracks recorded between 1974 and 1988 for King Records, one of the most venerable record labels in Japan. These tracks -- which are in demand on the Japanese groove scene -- are mostly new to international ears and showcase the breadth and quality of Nippon music recorded during the '70s and '80s. The selection kicks off with the group Buzz, a folk duet formed in the early '70s by Hiroshi Koide and Masakazu Togo who released a handful of albums for King during the '70s. The track "Garasumado" (Glass Window) is from the 1974 album Requiem The City which was produced by Nobuyuki Takahashi, the older brother of future YMO superstar Yukihiro Takahashi. At the time both were members of cult group Sadistic Mika Band. Next comes the synth boogie sound of singer Mami Ayukawa, who was active on the Japanese music scene in the mid-'80s, followed by drummer Johnny Yoshinaga's 1978 hard funk "The Rain" featuring great keyboards action from Hiroyuki Namba, one of Tatsuro Yamashita's key musicians. Keiko Toda's mid-tempo delight "Fade In" was released in 1983 and adds a touch of class to the ensemble with its languid rhythm and synth riffs. The rest of Tokyo Bliss alternate between the stylish funk-folk floater "Bokura no Date" by Koji Kobayashi from 1978 and the '80s funk bomb "Your Love's Away" by Kumiko Sawada, produced by prolific guitarist Kazuo Takeda with his group Creation, who is backing Sawada here. The selection closes with the superb Moog and Fender Rhodes-led space funk instrumental "Paper Machine" released in 1977 by Fujimaru Band and which ends the set on a perfect note.

WRWTFWW Records presents the first ever release of the highly-sought after original soundtrack from 1987 cult horror movie Dolls by multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, music man extraordinaire Fuzzbee Morse. The limited-edition LP is a miracle of lost-then-found VHS era film scores and is housed in a heavyweight 350gsm sleeve with a bloody cutout sticker and exclusive composer notes. Directed by Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond, Robot Jox) and released by Charles Band's infamous Empire Pictures (which later morphed into Full Moon Productions), Dolls is '80s campy VHS horror in all its glory, a fan-favorite with all the attributes needed for a frightening popcorn night, including one hell of a soundtrack with a very welcomed heavy dose of menacing synths, thunderous orchestrations, and quirky interludes. The haunting score comes from master Fuzzbee Morse who composed it in Richard Band's garage with a Yamaha QX-1 sequencer, an arsenal of vintage synthesizers, and a wide array of instruments. The result is a must-have (and never released before) soundtrack that blends horror tropes with influences ranging from Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring to Bernard Herrmann, Frank Zappa, Beethoven, Charles Ives, and Eleanor Rigby.

FREQ003 introduces a vinyl repress of the iconic The Truth EP by Eddie "Flashin" Fowlkes, a pioneering figure in Detroit techno who played a crucial role in shaping the genre's early sound. Originally released in 1995, this timeless EP is a testament to Fowlkes' distinct blend of raw, soulful techno and deep house. The FREQ team has meticulously remastered the tracks, ensuring the warmth and energy of the original production is preserved. A key inspiration for our narrative has been the origins of techno and the way it became commercialized and streamlined for the capitalist market, with the original creators losing control of the genre. The label has woven this concept into its story, though it's expressed in a more coded and abstract form. Given the deep influence that Detroit Techno and its early pioneers have had on both FREQ lore and its team, it is a true honor to feature Eddie Fowlkes on the label. FREQ Records is the record label accompanying the manga FREQ, created by Nicola Kazimir, illustrated by goodnewsforbadguys, and written by the legendary Dai Sato, who has written scripts for Ergo Proxy, Eureka Seven, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, among many others.

On Not Around But Through, Portland-based experimental musician and tape wizard Amulets navigates the process of acceptance and the tumultuous journey of looking within. Over the course of eight tracks, he explores the emotional path of moving through rather than circumventing, in the process soundtracking a purposeful desire to face trauma and vulnerability. The Asian-American artist is one of the most gifted alchemists working at the intersection of experimental and heavy music today and this riveting album represents his most direct and immediate work yet. Infusing his trademark ambient soundscapes with ambitious blends of post-hardcore, emo, and metal, Not Around But Through connects the dots between personal and social dislocation, leaving listeners with a taste of the fragmented and fallen future they are all steeling themselves for. Traversing a landscape that varies from gentle and meandering to explosive and cathartic, Amulets uses cinematic tension and relentless attention to detail to construct his sonic apparitions. On "Lifelike" he collaborates with Midwife, incorporating Madeline Johnston's voice into a song that pulsates with post-shoegaze transcendent energy. Amulets' second album for Beacon Sound and his first new music in four years; his 2021 album The Blooming was released by The Flenser.

The recordings on A Modern View on Early Music show a bold mix: breathtaking a cappella interpretations of the Octonaires de la Vanité du Monde by Paschal de L'Estocart (1582) and pieces from the Geneva Psalter (1562) meet the reworkings of Sylvain Chauveau. The voices of chant 1450, trained in early music, sing these pieces with lyrics about transience full of emotion and elegance. Sylvain Chauveau processed individual pieces electronically, whereby transience remains sonically present in his always surprising versions. The reworkings do not take early music as a fixed, quasi-museum repertoire, but as a starting point for something new -- everything is in flux, is reinterpreted, changes. A wonderful stream of fantastic music emerges, with ancient and contemporary music coming closer together than one might initially expect. Le Beau du monde -- A Modern View on Early Music, is the second collaboration by chant 1450 and Sylvain Chauveau after Echoes of Harmony - Early Music Reworked (SR 447CD, 2017), both released by Sub Rosa.

Outre-nuit as Outre-noir by Pierre Soulages displays the greatest nuances on subtle variations. Between Clara Levy's two original compositions is Giacinto Scelsi's "Xnoybis" (1964), a piece that makes you feel like you're listening for the first time. It is a journey amongst the reliefs contained within one single pitch. Written in three parts, the piece is an instinctive approach to the sound spectrum (the term "spectral music" was coined a decade later). Next comes a nocturne by Kaija Saariaho, which focuses on the sound material metamorphosis. Erika Vega and Eva Maria Houben, two young female composers, close the program with their own pieces. All pieces performed by Clara Levy. Levy (1991) is a French violinist and improviser living in Brussels whose career is mainly focused on new music performance. She has been developing solo project addressing different topics at the core of contemporary music practice: the blurred lines between interpretation and composition (13 Visions) or the listening experience and dramaturgy of the concert (Outre-Nuit).

LP version. After four years of solo festival appearances, the duo formed by Rebeka Warrior and Vitalic is making a grand comeback!

LP version. The reinterpreted traditional folk songs that make up Cold Blows The Rain are shaped by the land and the weather. Wrapped in mist and drizzle, the crawling drone of low heavy clouds on flat-top moors. The sound of the dark Calder Valley floor and sun starved hills in West Yorkshire in the North of England. A must for fans of Karen Dalton, ØXN, Shirley Collins, and Lisa O'Neill -- it's found a home on local Todmorden label Basin Rock (Jim Ghedi, Myriam Gendron, Michael Chapman, Juni Habel, Trevor Beales). Bridget Hayden is a soul who found a home among the hills of Todmorden, the oddly-named market border town in West Yorkshire. The experimental musician, who invites the ghosts in for the classic folk songs that make up her stunning new album, knows only too well about the wind and rain, fog and mist, how rare and treasured the breaks from it are. Her favorite thing to do in the valley, she says, is "to make the most of every tiny minute of sunshine." Such aspirations nearly derailed the recording of Cold Blows the Rain, her new eight-song collection released via the Todmorden- based label Basin Rock. Having hired the town's Oddfellow's Hall to record these new songs in the late summer of 2022, Hayden says the weather was so good she ended up basking in every second of it, only moving inside to begin recording when the sun was setting, working deep into the night to make up the time. The songs that make up Cold Blows the Rain are not made for the sunlight. They come, instead, wrapped in mist and coated with drizzle, those elements shaping the album as much as the voice and the instruments held within, as real but ambiguous as the ghosts that linger in the shadows. The sound of the dark valley floor. Underpinned by waves of analogue reverb, and led by Bridget's stirring and weather-beaten voice, the songs on Cold Blows the Rain drift and crawl like low heavy clouds on flat-top hills, shaped by the land. The backdrop is equally as arresting, all subtle gloom cast in shadow, a gentle but pronounced swirling of textures, crafted from harmonium and violin courtesy of The Apparitions (Sam Mcloughlin and Dan Bridgewood-Hill). 180gm heavyweight black vinyl. Includes download code.

"On the cover: In February New York based artist and sonic therapist Devi Mambouka will release her second album as Masma Dream World. The long awaited follow-up to 2020's Play At Night, Please Come To Me will be released via Nabil Ayers' Valley Of Search label. For The Wire Mambouka discusses ritual, healing and 'music for the shadow world' with Emily Pothast; Sound Art with Stones Sound: artists like Glasgow-based Cypriot Antonia Kattou and the UK's Simon James, aka The Simonsound, as well as critical architectural practices such as Bethlehem-based AAU Anastas, use stone as a focal point for an interrogation of geopolitics. Bobby Jewell reports; Caxtrinho: As Caxtrinho, Brazilian singer and guitarist Paulo Vitor Castro's turbulent, psychedelic strategies against samba and bossa nova made a formidable impression with last year's album Queda Livre. By Derek Walmsley; Louis Laurain: The experimental cornetist has brought his free and extended techniques to ensembles like the The Umlaut Big Band and Lumpeks as well as collaborations with Éliane Radigue, Stephen O'Malley and, most recently, Pierre Bastien with whom he's releasing a new album via Brighton's Rose Hill records. By Clive Bell; Invisible Jukebox: Lydia Lunch From downtown NYC to The Lydian Turn podcast, legend in her own lifetime Lydia Lunch takes on The Wire's blind listening test. Tested by Claire Biddles; Global Ear: Tijuana; Unlimited Editions: Pointless Geometry; Inner Sleeve: Jules Reidy; Plus, one page profiles of Chris Cundy, Able Noise and Polonius."

Wojciech Rusin presents Honey for the Ants via AD 93. Honey for the Ants completes an "alchemical trilogy," after The Funnel and Syphon. These albums are informed by mystical and gnostic texts, celebrating the weird, unhinged and occasionally beautiful. In this album the tonalities have shifted from mediaeval and renaissance to modernist dissonances. New singers and instrumentalists contribute to an emotional and textural richness achieved in a collaborative process. Distant musical periods, real and fictitious, are nonchalantly interwoven to create a delirious mongrel that salutes the imagination. Wojciech Rusin is a Polish-born audio-visual artist based in London. He draws inspiration from alchemical and gnostic texts, early renaissance choral music and Eastern European mythologies. He released Syphon LP on AD 93 in 2022 and The Funnel LP on Akashic Records in April 2019. He designs and makes 3D-printed reed instruments, reworking ancient designs with contemporary 3D modelling technologies. In 2020 he released Meat for the Guard Dogs on Cafe OTO's Takuroku digital imprint, and the Rufus Orbis cassette for Boomkat Editions/Documenting Sound series. His music has been featured on BBC Four and he has worked for The National Theatre and The Southbank Centre.

Double LP version. A classic compilation that emanated out of Osaka, Noise Forest brings together a powerhouse of early '90s Japanese noise stalwarts: Merzbow, C.C.C.C., Solmania, Dislocation, Monde Bruits, Masonna, Violent Onsen Geisha, and Incapacitants. The ultimate Japanoise collection, originally released in 1992 on the cult Les Disques Du Soleil label/record store on CD-only, and now impossible to find. Remastered and presented here with new artwork. A forest isn't something normally associated with noise; it brings to mind silence and solitude. However, the ominous cover art here - and the artists within -- bring to mind the notorious suicide forest Aokigahara. Despite all tracks falling into the Japanoise genre, the tracks are very diverse, yet every track is so distinct it could only be by that artist.

The music of Green Cosmos makes listeners realize that their never-ending quest for love can find fulfillment. You take a long, slow breath and feel the magic of transcendent wisdom. It's like looking up from your room to the brightly lit windows of the home of your neighbors. Might someone be standing there, watching? Listen to Abendmusiken and imagine what life would be like if you were one again with God's original ideas. Green Cosmos enchant listeners with their blend of jazz, the sound of heartbeats, emotional outburst, and folk-music. There is not one note too many, and everything gets to the heart of the matter. A saxophone that sails ahead on a world-map of sound, driven by the beat of Kalimba and drums, sometimes fraternizing with a bass that's now insistent and then shy, and closely listens to a reassuringly omniscient piano until the music merges into a unit that's greater than its parts. It's no exaggeration to say that this band has created something new and unique, and that the excellence of the moment got captured in this recording. This, quite simply, is beautiful and exciting music that steers us through the night. And if you are standing by a window seeing someone looking at you from their window -- give them a wave!

Double LP version. "High quality music to be enjoyed by many people all around the world, no matter where they are." --Andreas Brunner-Schwer, MPS Records. The German SABA and MPS family of labels extended this sentiment to include music from musicians all around the world, no matter where they were from -- and here on Spiritual Jazz 17: SABA/MPS, Jazzman explores that very theme. Throughout the '60s and '70s both labels released a wealth of music from a wealth of international jazz musicians coming from both North and South America, Europe, the Caribbean and the Far East. The aim was to release jazz that was exciting, innovative and interesting, regardless of style: there was swing, blues, bop, avant-garde, fusion -- and spiritual jazz. Plurality became a defining feature and the immense breadth of their output made both SABA and MPS worthy European counterparts to American imprints such as Blue Note and Impulse. On Spiritual Jazz 17: SABA/MPS Jazzman features, among others, international contributions from Americans Elvin Jones, Nathan Davis, and Dave Pike, Europeans Pedro Iturralde, Jef Gilson, and George Gruntz, and the Japanese Hideo Shiraki. The extensive liner notes outline the history of the SABA and MPS labels, and go some way to explain the spirit and philosophy behind the long-standing record company and the musicians who bore their souls to the recording process. Friedheim Schulz, who oversaw many of the sessions, has fond memories: "These guys had ideas, they had their special thing, it was the time when there were lots of ideas and new sounds and what have you, and [SABA proprietor] Hans Georg was always of the mind that people should do their own kind of music. So he gave them the chance to record and then he would just put out the albums and that was it! The musicians would really play what they wanted to play." Their great legacy is a lineage of music that has transcended the fatigues of time, and Jazzman has picked prime examples from the SABA and MPS catalogues to uphold its own legacy in the long-running series of Spiritual Jazz. Also featuring Tony Scott and the Indonesian Allstars, Albert Mangelsdorff Quartet, Orchester Roland Kovac, Fritz Pauer, and Joachim Kühn Group.

All articles presented in English. Includes "Mary Lou Williams" by Anton Spice, "Tomeka Reid" by Michael Mikesell, "Horace Silver" by Seymour Wright, "Wind Up & Julius Eastman" by Marc Medwin, "Esmond Edwars at Prestige" by Francis Gooding, "Contemporary Ethio-Jazz" by Nathan Hamelberg, "Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp" by Phil Freeman, "Arooj Aftab" by Rob Garratt, "John Surman" by Bret Sjerven, "Punk Jazz with Benjamin Herman" by Danny Veekens, "Discaholic Column" by Mats Gustafsson, Odysseus Festival 2024 photo report, reviews, and more. 128 pages, 170 x 240 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers.

How can a sense of beauty be found amidst fear and cruelty? How can all the unspeakable be made audible, but also anger, hope, and an unyielding will to live? With his third album Temple Of Hope, Iranian composer Saba Alizadeh has created a moving homage to the people of his homeland. He transforms the events during the "Woman Life Freedom" movement, as well as the struggles of the population in previous years, into poignant electro-acoustic music. Intensified by the vocals and lyrics of Andreas Spechtl, Sanam Maroufkhani, and Leila Rahimi. In his compositions, Saba Alizadeh combines the traditional string instrument Kamancheh with strings, modular synthesizers, and a no-input mixer. This results in a tense sound that explores the speechlessness and torn emotions between suffering, rebellion, and hope. Historical radio sequences ground his pieces in the culture and history of the country. The strong alienation and deconstruction of these acoustic elements, in turn, point to the incomprehensible -- to existential upheavals and dissolution processes.

Ethio-jazz pioneer Mulatu Astatke joins the Hoodna Orchestra, Tel Aviv's number one Afro funk collective, melding his enchanting vibraphone playing with their brass heavy force across original compositions that play tribute to the classic Mulatu sound while forging fresh paths. Produced by and featuring Dap-King Neal Sugarman, the results are gritty, yet majestic, soulful and uplifting. Mulatu Astatke requires little introduction at this point. Born in Jimma, Ethiopia, Mulatu went on to live and study in London, Boston and New York. Initially drawn to and trained in jazz and Latin music, he developed the sound he called "Ethio-jazz" over a series of seminal albums combining jazz, Latin, funk and soul, with traditional Ethiopian scales and rhythms. Long a cornerstone of the Ethiopian recording industry, his albums and even guest appearances were long sought after by record collectors and music enthusiasts around the globe. Formed in 2012 on the south side of Tel Aviv, the 12-member Hoodna Orchestra is a collective of musicians and composers who initially bonded over a shared love of Afrobeat. They have gone on to incorporate psychedelic rock, hard funk and soul, jazz, and East African music into their sought-after releases, winning praise and airplay from the likes of Iggy Pop and Huey Morgan on BBC Radio 6 Music. The collective draws together a huge array of musical talents such as guitarist Ilan Smilan and organist Eitan Drabkin of Sababa 5 fame, Shalosh trio drummer Matan Assayag, and percussionist Rani Birenbaum of The Faithful Brothers, many of whom also contribute compositions to the orchestra, ensuring its collaborative environment. Over time, members of the orchestra came to find they shared a growing interest in Ethiopian music, particularly the Ethio-jazz of Mulatu Astatke. One can imagine the band slowly marching out of the venue through the crowd at the end of their show, the audience clapping in time with the orchestra's brass and percussion, recalling another legend, the late great Sun Ra. On one hand, Tension is clearly a deeply personal tribute by the Hoodna Orchestra to iconic Mulatu Astatke, but at the same time the recordings emit a remarkable amount of chemistry, and together they have created an essential addition to Mulatu's rich discography that charts new directions in his Ethio-jazz trajectory and provides the Hoodna Orchestra with their strongest album to date.

Immerse yourself in the incomparable world of funk and soul with the compilation Rare Grooves: A Funk And Soul Era. This unique collection of 16 hand-picked tracks from the '60s, '70s, and '80s brings back the vibrant influence of funk and soul to the European musical landscape of the time. This CD is a musical time capsule that brings long-forgotten treasures back to life. Many of the songs included were originally only released as vinyl singles and are now available on CD for the first time. Look forward to a fascinating mix of disco, krautrock, pop, Afrobeat and jazz songs, which gets its very own charm with a healthy dose of funk and soul. Let yourself be carried away by the creative diversity and unbridled groove of this era. Rare Grooves: A Funk And Soul Era is more than just a CD -- it is an essential piece of music history for collectors and lovers who appreciate the authentic sound of the funk and soul era. Featuring Atlas, Abadie, Ganymed, Charly And The Diamonds, Bill Gabo, The Jaguars, Stonewall, Epsilon, Lee Reed, MC London, Wolfgang Ambros, and Christian Kolonovits.

LP version. Final part of the Nichts deluxe reissue series: The almost forgotten third Nichts album Aus Dem Jenseits from 1983 has finally been reissued! Due to circumstances, it was lost and unsuccessful at the time, but that's why it's also rare and has become a cult favorite. Nichts reorganized themselves in 1983 and released an unbroken series of six German-language new wave power pop super hits on side A of the LP, garnished with the always good post-punk lyrics of singer Andrea Mothes. Their echoes can still be found today in current guitar pop, new wave and new German wave. At least the single "Venus Schenkt Dir Schöne Stunden (Horrorskop)" should have been an NDW classic of the better kind. And side 2 is hardly weaker. After the band ended their tour in autumn 1982 following two successful albums and the NDW hits "Radio" and "Tango 2000," founding member and guitarist Meikel Clauss and bassist Scarbeck left the band. But singer/lyricist Andrea Mothes and drummer Tobias Brink were not finished with Nichts and recorded the third album Aus Dem Jenseits with a new line-up. A live performance at Mal Sondock's Pop Explosion, a planned single release and a booked tour seemed to continue the success, but things turned out differently: due to an injury to Brink, the tour had to be cancelled, the single was not promoted any further, the band soon broke up and the album became a die-hard fan favorite. The remastering of the album, which was enthusiastically approved by the former band members with a grade of 1+, was produced in the Düsseldorf Skyline sound factory by Kai Blankenberg, whose services are otherwise utilized by International Music, Boy, Madsen and regularly by Udo Lindenberg, among others. In addition to a bonus track (Horrorskop 2024 Single Edit), there is also a 16-page booklet with photos of the time and the lyrics!

LP version. When the sense of time and space disappears, psychedelic sounds merge into an endless tapestry of sound, nothing can really be categorized here. You don't have to, better switch off your head. Only rarely do records like ADA appear that offer seemingly endless opportunities to dream away -- because there is so much history in them: "The new album is something like the essence of over 30 years of Electric Orange," explains Dirk Jan Müller, who started the long-running project back in 1992 in Aachen, Germany and later developed it into a great band. Electric Orange are clearly rooted in the Krautrock of the seventies (and also use some of the equipment from this era), so many tracks are reminiscent of the well-known legends of the genre: Can, Tangerine Dream, Amon Düül -- a mixture of everything the band members love. In this world, every groove is even better when you play it for minutes on end. Electric Orange's music is constantly evolving, spherical sounds come in and go out again -- or are replaced by experimental wah-wah guitars. Space sound effects? Movie samples? Yes! Electric Orange reveal an expansive world and then lead the listener through it; their music is both driving and dreamy at the same time.

LP version. At the forefront of a rising wave of Brazilian artists captivating international audiences, Nyron Higor brings a quiet yet potent sense of wonder to his new self-titled album. Born in Maceió, Higor's latest work is rooted in the traditions of Northeastern Brazilian music and golden-era MPB. Within the peaceful surroundings of his home, Higor weaves these roots together with global influences and contemporary production techniques, for a uniquely dreamlike vision of hope. Following the success of his self-released debut Fio de Lâmina -- an instrumental record of delicately balanced rhythmic and harmonic patterns, which earned support from tastemakers like Mr. Scruff, Gilles Peterson, and John Gomez -- Higor's new album is a move towards a more expansive, lyrical exploration of transcendence and triumph. Taking his demos and unfinished tracks to São Paulo, Higor worked alongside friends and collaborators from Brazil's vibrant contemporary music scene -- including fellow Maceioense artists Bruno Berle, Batata Boy, and New York-based Brazilian vocalist Alici Sol -- assembling a rich musical landscape and a cutting-edge development on the musical world from which he emerges. For Higor, the process of recording and producing in close collaboration with Berle and Batata Boy allowed him to fully cultivate the emotive power of his compositions. Album opener "Ciranda" sets the tone with a slow frevo rhythm, as wistful trombone melodies and melancholic acoustic guitar harmonies create an atmosphere both intimate and grand. Lead single "São Só Palavras," featuring Alici Sol and Bruno Berle, captures both the lightness and depth of young love in an all too fleeting minute-and-a-half moment of soaring brilliance. Building upon the instrumental sound of his debut, "Louro Cantador" with its playful organ, birdlike whistles and elegant acoustic guitar, emanates a kind of rare natural beauty, as each sound dances amidst the gentle pulse of Higor's bass. Through ten carefully crafted tracks, Higor's acuity for sound and silence draws listeners into a place that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. This album is a testament to the timeless themes that define Higor's artistry, as well as his creative drive to overcome the obstacles he faces. Conveying his feelings of jubilance for his work, Higor notes, "This work is liberating, contemplative and victorious!" Each track invites the listener to experience the raw intimacy, the joy and longing, and the otherworldly ingenuity of Brazilian music, which seems to endlessly keep listeners coming back for more.

LP version. Hailing from Cyprus's divided capital Nicosia, and led by Antonis Antoniou, the founder of Monsieur Doumani and Trio Tekke, Buzz' Ayaz creates a transfixing Eastern Mediterranean psychedelia. Their self-titled debut album is a fuzzed-out urban soundscape of dubby electronics, '70s-psych organ, growling bass clarinet, amplified folk instruments, ritual beats and Greek and Anatolian melodicism. The band members come from both sides of the capital's divide, and the music found on Buzz' Ayaz is a deliberate attempt to give a voice to the city as a whole. A mercurial sound that echoes above the concrete walls and checkpoints. Cyprus is a holiday destination for people from all over Europe, a sunny, blue-sea island in the Eastern Mediterranean with a proud, ancient history. But it's also a divided island, with longstanding political tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot populations. Yet, inevitably in a small place, the two cultures intertwine. Walk the streets of Nicosia, the divided capital, and you'll hear Greek rembetiko alongside Turkish pop, Anatolian psychedelia next to Western rock. That urban mix of sounds he heard each day put a spark in Antonis Antoniou's head. With his new band, Buzz' Ayaz, that spark has caught fire, making Cypriot music that strides between decades and continents, electric and organic. The results on their eponymous debut album holds a barely contained wildness -- and a bass clarinet. Buzz' Ayaz carries a big sound, a punchy heaviness that draws from ʼ60s and ʼ70s rock, but stirring it up with all the differing sounds of Cyprus that Antoniou has known all his life. The recording captures the energy of Buzz' Ayaz, with all the rawness and sweat of performance, coated with urban grit. But there's far more to this than power; Buzz' Ayaz prickles with intelligence, invention and imagination. Buzz' Ayaz is the electric sound of modern Cyprus, the musical bridge that spans worlds. It's music that keeps Antoniou's blood racing, the sound in his head coming to life. The roots of Buzz' Ayaz are in Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and throughout the Levant, but they meld together on the streets of Nicosia. "I hope," Antoniou says, "that the reach is infinite."

Another Mississippi Sunday Morning is the poignant sequel to Some Mississippi Sunday Morning (2023), the prison-recorded gospel album that was met with unexpected global acclaim by the likes of the New York Times, The Guardian, the New Yorker, and BBC (just to name a few). In early 2024, Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Ustad Saami, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, The Good Ones [Rwanda]) returned to the Parchman Farm maximum security facility in Mississippi to record a second collection of raw, haunting performances from the prison's Sunday gospel service. The results are once again captivating and unforgettable. Twelve men participated in the new recording session, ranging in age from 23 to 74. Three are serving life sentences and six of them were newer arrivals or not on the debut album. There were no guards or chaplains present this time. Like the first album, all songs were first takes, recorded 100% live and without overdubs. The session took four hours, twice the length of time Brennan was allotted for Some Mississippi Sunday Morning. This time the singers knew what to expect and some came to the session with pre-prepared material. "Certain people who were involved the first time became very prominent this time," Brennan says. "They were also more motivated to write their own songs, so a lot of them had done that in advance. A couple of those from before were really eager to do song after song. Everybody sang at least one song." Though all of the music is intimate and stripped back, each song and performance, whether it is based on traditional gospel or hip hop or the deep blues, has an individual and powerful story to tell.

"From a cappella and delicately inflected tenor ornamentation to a hypnotic basso profundo chant; from an urgent rap about a singer's remorse to a hopeful choral outburst: this is inspirational music, triumphant rather than beaten down and defeated." --BBC Music

LP version. Chris Eckman is one of those songwriters with the alchemist's touch. He's proved it over the years as the songwriter of the Seattle rock folk band The Walkabouts, as well as across a lauded six album solo career. His songs have been recorded by Townes Van Zandt, Steve Wynn, Willard Grant Conspiracy (and others), and his last album, the spare, haunted Where the Spirit Rests, won the prestigious German Record Critics Award (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik) in 2021. Three and a half years later he's back with The Land We Knew the Best, and new stories to tell.

White color vinyl version. Highly-anticipated vinyl represses of this stone-cold classic. Now comes with new gold foil embossed artwork. After a couple of demos for the French promoter who paired him with his childhood hero Love's Arthur Lee in 1992, Pale Fountains and Shack legend Michael Head entered a Liverpool recording studio the following year, with a new project in mind, The Strands. Michael teamed up with his brother and lifelong companion, John, his long-time drummer Iain Templeton and two new recruits, Michelle Brown on bass and Les Roberts on flute. The recording sessions would last two years and were only halted because Michael was offered a new major label deal. A deal, not for his current work, but for him to record as Shack again. So it came to be that Stephane Bismuth, the French promoter, was left with 100 or so minutes of a thwarted project, only a third of which had made it to the mixing studio in Sheffield in the summer of '95. Patch-working and weaving rough mixes and sketches -- by engineer Steve Powell, made in Liverpool -- with completed mixes by producer Mark Coyle who had hired an arranger and string section for sessions in Sheffield, Stephane Bismuth founded a new label Megaphone and finally released The Magical World of The Strands, in autumn of 1997.

Produced and engineered by Jah Wobble at home in his bedroom (hence the title), the album was originally released in spring 1983, showing a different side in the bass player evolution. His proper second album after a major label stint with Virgin -- for his debut -- and the stratospheric collaborations with Holger Czukay and The Edge. A mystical hybrid of dub fusion, ethereal wave and global beat, still ahead of his time.

The first ever commercial vinyl release of the classic folk horror score, presented in an incredible pop-up Witchfinder sleeve. For many, this is the long-awaited score that completes the "holy trinity" of folk horror: The Wicker Man (1973), Blood On Satan's Claw (1971), Witchfinder General (1968). And all these albums were first commercially found and released by Jonny Trunk. This is the first time Witchfinder General has been commercially released on LP (previously only available as a mega rare 1973 library LP or withdrawn CD). As well as the superb Matthew Hopkins/Vincent Price pop-up, the gatefold sleeves feature stills from the classic film, plus comprehensive notes about the film production history and the music. This is just the package the folk horror fans really want. Classic pastoral, melodic and scary music.